The Peace Innovation Lab at Stanford University, in partnership with CSU East Bay’s ASI, held a TEDx Hayward conference in the New Union’s Multipurpose room May 19 to promote ideas of global peace.

TED is a non-profit annual conference dedicated to “Ideas Worth Spreading” by bringing together speakers from the technology, entertainment and design fields, according to ted.com.

TEDx Hayward—the ‘x’ indicating that it was an independently organized TED event— featured 15 different speaking segments, including five pre-recorded video presentations, split into three sections.

“We wanted to inspire people,” said Ylva Sandberg, one of the head coordinators of the TEDx Hayward event. “We wanted to broadens people’s minds about Peace Innovation.”

Peace Innovation Lab is a relatively new initiative, starting last spring, at Stanford University that aims to emphasize “how technology and emerging social behaviors and insights are promoting new paths to global peace,” according to their website.

The group, along with CSUEB’s ASI, used the TED moniker as a platform to reach students and other members of the campus community involved in global matters.

All of the presentations revolved around the ideas of how global issues, like natural disasters and social revolutions, affect many other areas of the world, and proposed options on how to get involved and help through various organizations.

“All of the speakers were recommended through the Peace Innovation Lab at Stanford,” said Sandberg. “Their segments connected back to Peace Innovation, but had a lot of different takes on it.”

Though six hours may seem like an extended period of time for one event, attendees were able to come in and out of the event as they had time, and TEDx Hayward organizers kept the program running on time with several breaks with free snacks.

TEDx Hayward had about 200 attendees coming and going throughout the six-hour event, with a steady 50 people and a max head-count at 89.

“It’s always a challenge to reach out to students on our campus, especially for a long event,” added Sandberg. “So we’re really happy with the turnout. It was great to see our guests take in the thoughts and collaborations we wanted to inspire.”

The event was well received by guests and plans to apply for another license to use the TED name are imminent for next year.

“Our speakers were really enthusiastic and had a lot of opportunities to connect and find collaborators for their cause, which was one of our goals,” said Sandberg.

Coordinators are excited to plan another conference so that more people can be reached and greater strides towards global peace can be made.